Bayanihan Linux 4.0, Proudly Philippine Made: It is my honor to review the latest release version of our very own Debian-based distro named Bayanihan Linux. The Bayanihan project was initiated by the Open Source Group in Advanced Science and Technology Institute last October 2001. Its main goal is to provide the best alternative desktop solution to Filipinos. In details, it aims to provide a better hardware support, operation simplicity, speed, efficiency, stability and Windows portability.

So now let’s find out if this government sponsored distro is worthy to be called one of the Linuxes.

Installation:You can download Bayanihan Linux4.0.iso by clicking here. The installation CD is only about 700MB. I installed Bayanihan via VMware v5.5 on my OpenSuse 10.1 system. So it was Linux on Linux. It only took about 15 minutes to complete the installation and the latest version of Anaconda, Bayanihan’s Fedora based installer, is a breeze to use and much simpler than the older version. The installation was completely finished without a single problem. Audio and Ethernet worked fine. The screen resolution was at 1280 x 1024 on my 17" Samsung Syncmaster monitor.

Look and feel:Bayanihan has a KDE 3.5 desktop. Any Filipino will know that this distribution is made by Pinoys by just looking at the default desktop. The K menu has a sun with 8 rays that can seen on our national flag. It doesn’t have Beryl or Compizeyecandy but it does have commendable artworks like its default wallpaper and boot splash image. Like any other KDE desktop, it is highly configurable.

Package Management:Some important softwares are already installed in Bayanihan. To name a few, it has Firefox 2.0 as web browser, Gimp 2.2 as image editor, OpenOffice 2.1 for office applications, MPlayer 1.0 for multimedia, Python 2.3 and Perl 5.8 for programming, and if you are into 3D modelling there’s Blender. You can always use its Synaptic package manager to add packages that you like or easily uninstall some software that you don’t need.

Stability:I have only tested this distro for about two hours and only in VMware. I haven’t encountered any noticeable bug the entire time. Bayanihan comes with Guarddog firewall and ClamAV antivirus, so I can say that it could run stable for a much longer period of time as it is safe and secure to use.

Wish List:

1. Java and Shockwave Flash should be installed by default2. A Gnome version3. A live CD installer4. Compiz or Beryl eyecandy5. A redesigned Bayanihan website

Conclusion:This is a very clean and simple Linux distribution filled with ready to use software for educational purposes and for productivity. The easy installation which is ideal for beginners is what I like most. This could be a worthy Windows replacement if our government is concerned about saving some national budget because Bayanihan Linux is totally FREE.